Cogswell Dam to point 4177 and (somewhat) beyond - trip report and photos
Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:41 pm
I'm still trying to find a good alternate route to West Mermaid/Peak 4654 in order to place a register. I could go the same way as last time, but that isn't nearly as fun! My planned route two weeks ago from Windy Gap didn't get anywhere close and while this one certainly got closer, it too was cut short. This time I teamed up with Dima, who for some reason finds things like this fun too.
The original idea was to go up Chileno Canyon from Glen Campground, which would minimize the required elevation gain, keep us shaded as much as possible, and hopefully avoid lots of bushwhacking. I wasn't able to find any info online, but when I asked AW here he said there was an early falls that may not be safely climbable or passable, so we bailed on that plan. The revised route has been talked about here before, which was to start at the east end of Cogswell Dam and just take the ridge north, following that to points 4177 and 5014, then going SE to the saddle just north of West Mermaid/4654 for the final scramble. This all seems reasonable on paper, and I recall at least one person talking about going to 5014 before.
We started at the parking lot where the West Fork SG River meets the 39 a little after 6am. In order to save time we biked from there along the road to the dam, which took about an hour. There is a fancy gate just before the dam, but the place isn't exactly Fort Knox... We biked across the dam and stashed our bikes in the bushes of the gully, then started hiking. We started up the minor gully, which actually had a minor use trail and a short section of rope tied to a tree at one point. We soon left the gully and started heading straight up the ridge, which we followed for the rest of the day. Right from the start the terrain is steep, loose, and brushy. The vegetation is rarely dense enough that you can't get through it, but you are frequently at least brushing up against it if not actively pushing through it a little. There were occasional animal and possible use trails that helped out here and there, but overall it's just a matter of finding the best path between the bushes and going up. At the first prominent bump we found a small cairn, and we noticed saw cuts along the ridge that we assumed were from an old fire line. The fire history layer on CalTopo suggests that ridgeline was part of the eastern edge of the 2009 Station Fire, so that seems to fit. Views from the ridge are pretty nice in all directions, especially west into Devil's Canyon, south back to the dam, and east with the higher summits off in the distance. The intermittent use trails pretty much disappeared after the first prominent bump a little below 4k, though we did find another more substantial cairn at 4177. Just north of 4177 is a saddle that would be the most direct route between Devil's Canyon and Chileno Canyon. Faint trails were visible there and we speculated on if pot growers may have used it since there has definitely been grow activity in those areas. The saddle also represented the biggest section of climbing for the day, about 700 feet of vertical gain in maybe a 1/4 mile. By the time we made it up that it was a little after noon, so it was clear this route was much more time consuming than we had anticipated and that West Mermaid wasn't going to happen. We talked about making 5014 our new turnaround point, but by 1pm we were still over a half mile away with very slow progress, so we decided to make a minor bump along the ridge our final destination. West Mermaid taunted us from across Chileno Canyon, but given the terrain along the route, I would estimate reaching it this way would have added another 4-5 hours. We returned by the same route and once we got to our bikes it felt great to actually cover ground with any efficiency. I started by GPS track from the cars so it includes the biking distance and speed, but I think Dima tracked us on just the hiking leg at a whole 6 miles with an average speed of something like 0.6mi/hour!
I still want to find the time to get back to 4654, but if I do it will be by the known route. It's been a fun excuse for some exploration however, so it certainly hasn't been wasted time!
Stats (including biking and hiking): 21.5mi, 12 hours, 4700ft gain/loss
Trash found and packed out: Surprisingly little, but it's a rarely visited place and ridge so it doesn't collect stuff like canyons, I think we found just two balloons and nothing else.
The original idea was to go up Chileno Canyon from Glen Campground, which would minimize the required elevation gain, keep us shaded as much as possible, and hopefully avoid lots of bushwhacking. I wasn't able to find any info online, but when I asked AW here he said there was an early falls that may not be safely climbable or passable, so we bailed on that plan. The revised route has been talked about here before, which was to start at the east end of Cogswell Dam and just take the ridge north, following that to points 4177 and 5014, then going SE to the saddle just north of West Mermaid/4654 for the final scramble. This all seems reasonable on paper, and I recall at least one person talking about going to 5014 before.
We started at the parking lot where the West Fork SG River meets the 39 a little after 6am. In order to save time we biked from there along the road to the dam, which took about an hour. There is a fancy gate just before the dam, but the place isn't exactly Fort Knox... We biked across the dam and stashed our bikes in the bushes of the gully, then started hiking. We started up the minor gully, which actually had a minor use trail and a short section of rope tied to a tree at one point. We soon left the gully and started heading straight up the ridge, which we followed for the rest of the day. Right from the start the terrain is steep, loose, and brushy. The vegetation is rarely dense enough that you can't get through it, but you are frequently at least brushing up against it if not actively pushing through it a little. There were occasional animal and possible use trails that helped out here and there, but overall it's just a matter of finding the best path between the bushes and going up. At the first prominent bump we found a small cairn, and we noticed saw cuts along the ridge that we assumed were from an old fire line. The fire history layer on CalTopo suggests that ridgeline was part of the eastern edge of the 2009 Station Fire, so that seems to fit. Views from the ridge are pretty nice in all directions, especially west into Devil's Canyon, south back to the dam, and east with the higher summits off in the distance. The intermittent use trails pretty much disappeared after the first prominent bump a little below 4k, though we did find another more substantial cairn at 4177. Just north of 4177 is a saddle that would be the most direct route between Devil's Canyon and Chileno Canyon. Faint trails were visible there and we speculated on if pot growers may have used it since there has definitely been grow activity in those areas. The saddle also represented the biggest section of climbing for the day, about 700 feet of vertical gain in maybe a 1/4 mile. By the time we made it up that it was a little after noon, so it was clear this route was much more time consuming than we had anticipated and that West Mermaid wasn't going to happen. We talked about making 5014 our new turnaround point, but by 1pm we were still over a half mile away with very slow progress, so we decided to make a minor bump along the ridge our final destination. West Mermaid taunted us from across Chileno Canyon, but given the terrain along the route, I would estimate reaching it this way would have added another 4-5 hours. We returned by the same route and once we got to our bikes it felt great to actually cover ground with any efficiency. I started by GPS track from the cars so it includes the biking distance and speed, but I think Dima tracked us on just the hiking leg at a whole 6 miles with an average speed of something like 0.6mi/hour!
I still want to find the time to get back to 4654, but if I do it will be by the known route. It's been a fun excuse for some exploration however, so it certainly hasn't been wasted time!
Stats (including biking and hiking): 21.5mi, 12 hours, 4700ft gain/loss
Trash found and packed out: Surprisingly little, but it's a rarely visited place and ridge so it doesn't collect stuff like canyons, I think we found just two balloons and nothing else.